The Medium is the Message

The article, The Medium is the Message by Marshall McLuhan was very interesting, yet pretty confusing at times.  His ideas throughout the article were very unique and he made me really think about the importance of the medium.  His electric light example proved to be very helpful in explaining his position on how important the medium is.  After reading through the article, I tend to agree to an extent to what McLuhan is saying.  When talking about the electric light, he states, "whether the light is being used for brain surgery or night baseball is a matter of indifference.  It could be argued that these activities are in some way the "content" of the electric light, since they could not exist without the electric light.  This fact merely underlines the point that "the medium is the message" because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action" (McLuhan-203).  This made me really think about how I assess or look at certain situations.  I have always believed the medium to be important when communicating, but have never stressed the importance of the medium like McLuhan does.  What he is saying makes sense to me, as without the electric light, things like brain surgery or night baseball wouldn't exist.  Therefore, creating a social change.

Another part of the article that stood out to me was when he talked about how before the electric speed and total field, the medium being the message was overlooked and how people become obsessed with the content.  To me, again, he is right to an extent that the medium is often overlooked as we become focused on the content.  This article helped me understand that the medium can be as influential as the message because without it, that message would be completely different.  It was an article that I had to reread in order to get a better understanding about his message, but in the end, it was well worth it.

Social Selves Chapter 1 Post

This chapter’s main theme was Who am I?  I think this chapter was interesting and showed what is next to come in the book.  The whole idea behind Who am I is interesting to me. The book talked about people constantly searching for themselves in what they do in an “activity informing who we are through the talents and capacities it may develop” (4).   This really hit home with me.  I have tried out many different things throughout my life, looking for something that I’m flawless at and one that best reflects who I am.  I also tend to look at others for information regarding who I am.  I think interacting with others is important in showing yourself a little bit about who you are perceived to be.  Interactions made over social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become part of the equation as to who someone is.  People may judge you based on pictures or posts that are on your profile.  At times, these social media sites can bring a negative connotation to your name and could cost you your job or worse.   

In conclusion, reading about a lot of the different theories and philosophies regarding who a person is was extremely interesting.  Applying these different theories and concepts to social media was entertaining.  Social media has become a part of most people’s everyday lives.   These sites are part of them and help tell a lot about who they really are.

Man-Computer Symbiosis-Post 2

When reading the Licklider article, Man-Computer Symbiosis, like some of the other students have said, I felt it was a bit dry considering it was written 50 years ago.  Once I got deeper into it, I realized that a lot of the information was ahead of its time and deserved to be acknowledged.  I was impressed with a lot of the things he had to say considering the time period when this was written.  Licklider was spot on when he states, "It seems reasonable to envision, for a time 10 or 15 years hence, a "thinking center" that will incorporate the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and the symbiotic functions suggested earlier in this paper" (5.1).  Licklider was definitely ahead of his time making such predictions and having them turn out to be correct.  Modern day computers and having access to the internet is like having your own library with you at all times.  You can research anything you want and you will come across endless sources.

Another thing that stuck out to me in the article is when Licklider talked about memory and the cost of an item that possessed a substantial amount of memory.  He predicted such an item would cost "billions."  With the way that technology was back then, such a prediction made sense.  However, in today's world, electronics are affordable.  Smartphones, Smart-TVs, and computers all have incredible amounts of information and storage on them and they don't cost an arm and a leg.  I'm stunned by how far advances in technology have come over the last 50 years.  Steadily advancing and being able to build affordable equipment by using cost-efficient parts is amazing to me. 

Although this article is fairly outdated, it was very interesting to gain a perspective on such a topic from 50 years ago.  Licklider was way ahead of his time and this turned out to be an extremely interesting read.  In the 5 years since I graduated high school, regular flip-phones have turned into I-Phones, Smart-phones and I Pads.  It's impressive to watch this unfold before me, but one can only wonder how far we will go and what limits will be tested.

The quality of online social relationships - Post 1

I thought the Quality of Online Relationships article was not only interesting for an article written 12 years ago, but extremely relevant in today's world.  Years ago, online relationships and social media were not even possible, but are a main component in how we currently communicate with friends, family members and at the work place.  The article stated that e-mail was the most used electronic asset for communicating in the work place and by students and I think the numbers reported in the article are far below the statistics that would be reported today.  Although e-mail is useful in exchanging work-related information, I agree with the article's statistics that it would be less useful than other means of communication such as face-to-face or phone communication for personal relationships.  E-mail lacks that human interaction that I feel is extremely important in communication.  For example, with on the phone or face-to-face conversation, changes in tone or pitch can be heard and body language can be evaluated.  With e-mails, a person doesn't get to see what is and isn't emphasized in terms of importance because the message is just being interpreted by reading text.

I also wasn't shocked to hear that relationships sustained primarily over the Internet are not as close as those sustained by other means of communication such as face-to-face or over the phone.  Although, I think these statistics would be drastically different today with social media and communicating sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Skype.  These sites have pretty much set up face-to-face interaction over the internet and have improved our nations means of communication.  It's both exciting and scary to see how far technology has come over the last 12 years since this article was written.  It seems like the majority of our country depends heavily upon social media for their means of communication which I don't necessarily believe is a good thing.  I still believe that nothing beats face-to-face communication when trying to maintain a relationship, but the internet and social media sites have done a good job to shorten the gap.

Introductory Post

Hello everyone, I'm a Communication Studies major at SJSU.  I'm a junior and have taken 3 Foundations classes and I'm currently enrolled in 101C and 131P.  I chose Communication Studies as a major because I believe it is an important aspect in the work field and something that I personally needed to work on.  I have learned a lot of important information regarding communication in my previous classes and hope to learn more with this online class.  Social media is an important part of today's world.

My hobbies include playing and watching sports, hanging out with family and friends and seeing movies.  I'm from Santa Cruz, California, so I also love going to the beach and being outside, especially during the summer.  I'm one of the biggest San Francisco Giants fans that you will ever come across and try to attend as many games as possible during the summer.  The 2010 World Series run is something that I will never forget.  I'm currently trying to earn a Bachelor's degree and cannot wait to do so.  I hope everyone has a great summer session!